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Truth be told, I never was that into caramel as a kid. It was also those chewy caramels that stuck to your teeth and never quite tasted right. I only really enjoyed it in a Twix bar (yum!) until recently. I started on Pinterest several months back and kept seeing all of these caramel centered recipes. It seems we are in the midst of a caramel craze, so I had to check it out. I’ve made a couple of different types of caramels (or SALTED caramels as everyone seems to have to call them since straight up caramel isn’t trendy enough) via different methods and I’ve chosen my favorite, at least for the time being. I tried dry caramels, but had them burn as they are much quicker to caramelize without having the boiling off of water to slow the process. This recipe is a wet (water used) recipe that also uses a little bit of corn syrup and I’ve liked it so much, I’ve never tried omitting it. Some also use considerably more butter, but I like it with a little more of the straight sugar flavor. It thickens up nicely (as seen in the top photo) and can be stored in the fridge.

I love pumpkin. No question about it. When my curling club had a bonspiel (tournament) named the “Big Pumpkin,” I knew I had to make a dessert and this one popped off the page at me. It turned out pretty well, though a little more cake like than blondie like. I’d give it a try again though. It’s mild enough to please many palettes and was gone before the night was over.

My fiance knows that I love to bake and will occasionally send a recipe my way. It’s kind of funny, because I like testing out different techniques or multi component desserts, but he has much easier to please tastes. This recipe was super easy and I knew he’d love it, so I headed out and got myself some Rice Krispies. The cake flavor is pretty mild, but it softens the end of the bite, which is pretty nice.

I’m not the best morning person out there, but I don’t like to have the same thing every morning for breakfast. All through school, I had either cereal or an english muffin every morning. When I hit college, I decided that a bland same breakfast every day was no more! However, I’m barely awake for the first hour or so that I’m up and wanting to eat breakfast, so things that I can bake ahead of time and freeze individually to pull out and heat up on a whim are great. Scones fit that category quite well.

It’s the perfect time of year for apple pie. I’ve made two already over the summer and both times I had crust issues. I’ve made a crust before, but not since really concentrating on what I’m doing and trying to learn the feel of different dough to hopefully make my own recipes some day and they had turned out fine. I finally realized my problem was that I read too many of the “tips” for making a pie crust. Most recipes warn of adding too much water, which can result in a tough crust, and since I’m a chemist and pay pretty close attention to recipes, I was actually adding too little and making a kind of crumble. It was doubly compounded by the fact that I used a mixture of butter and shortening, which tastes great, but the shortening is softer and gives the dough the appearance of being held together with water before it really is.

This time, however, I was successful in my pie crafting. I’ll add a couple more of my own tips and what I’ll be trying in future pie crust adventures. For now, the recipe: